I saw something awesome on my local neighborhood app about a shamrock scavenger hunt and after trying it out, I thought I would share tips on how to set up a neighborhood scavenger hunt to help bring together communities and have some fun while stuck at home.
How to Set up A Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt
At this point many people are home with their children and spouses and are getting just a bit stir crazy. I know that in our house, my kids are starting to be really done with just being in the house or in the yard. Yesterday we went on a neighborhood scavenger hunt for shamrocks after seeing a thread in our local neighborhood app. We had a really nice time and it was a great way to get outside and see that we are all in this together.
Step 1: Put Together a Scavenger Hunt Theme
You can really put together any theme for this. Depending on your children’s age and the age of participants you can even have different levels for your kids to participate in. Some ideas for scavenger hunt themes are:
- Springtime
- Animals
- House Colors
- Vehicle makes/colors
- Holiday (Easter is coming up)
- Random items offered up (for instance we have a goose in our front yard…loooong story)
- One item, collect as many as you can hunts (find all the easter egg pictures or all the blue houses)
Step 2: Post to your local online neighborhood group
Posting on your local neighborhood group and put together a date and an idea of what to hunt for. A simple message stating something along the lines of “Hey neighbors in ___ neighborhood, my family and I would love to do a scavenger hunt and need your help…” You can then follow up with a list of 10-15 items that your family is hunting for and ask neighbors to just place them outside their house for you to hunt for. I have also seen people post their address so you can help guide your children through the scavenger hunt.
Step 3: Create a Checklist for your Participants
You can then create a checklist for your kids and other neighborhood participants to use. Make sure to post the checklist to the online neighborhood group too so others can use it. I put together a blank template for you to use for free! Click here to print it out.
Step 4: Pick a date and Get Your Hunt On
Now all you need to do is pick a date, notify everyone to have their items out and ready on that date and then head out for the hunt. What is great is that all people can play in the neighborhood, but that no one has to actually be right next to each other, but everyone can still be participating on their own.
Other Things to Consider
- You can make different levels for different age groups by adding addresses, maps or even clues. You can ask your neighbors to put together a clue to lead people to their house as well. This can be as simple or as easy as you want to make it.
- I would make sure that there are addresses where the items are located that way if a parent with smaller children would like to just go around a smaller radius, then they can pick and choose which items to search for.
- Make sure to stay with your children and during this social distancing time that you are maintaining 6-10 foot spaces between you and other groups that might be participating.
